It is full-on hot as hell around here (love it!) and we've been spending alot of time in the water. Eric completed swimming lessons and still cannot swim, but they both do really well in the water anyway.
So, in my relentless pursuit of figuring out a way to get us enough money to get a REAL pool, I've gotten really really into coupons. Inspired by Sherah, and encouraged by a local crafty friend who got me into her coupon group on facebook, I've saved a BOAT LOAD! It is insane! If you've seen that show Extreme Couponing, I'm no where near that level, but I've been saving so much and in only a few weeks of doing it. You already know how cheap I am, and we've been on a tight budget forever, but I've managed to cut even more! I started keeping track of it so I can see if it is all worth my time and if you are curious, this is the blog for that. As of today, I've spent $155.31 on $534.90 worth of food, cleaning supplies and toiletries. Pretty awesome huh?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Lately
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Why
I'm not really sure how to type it out, but I'm sure that anyone reading this knows exactly how it sounds, a young kid asks for something, the parent says 'no' and the kids responds with a whiney "wwwhhhhyyyyyy?????" complete with the collapsing body language.
We've all seen it.
As much as I'd love to say that Lily doesn't do this, I can't. She doesn't do it often and we've been working on curbing it, but the real problem now is that Eric does it too! It is kinda funny because he has no idea what why means, she just knows that is what he is supposed to say when he doesn't get his way. It is a tricky thing because I can't use the same techniques to get him to stop doing it.
Another funny thing that he does is if he wants to run around in the store and doesn't want me to carry him he starts saying "ow, ow, ow, ow" so everyonat looks at me like I'm hurting him!
We've all seen it.
As much as I'd love to say that Lily doesn't do this, I can't. She doesn't do it often and we've been working on curbing it, but the real problem now is that Eric does it too! It is kinda funny because he has no idea what why means, she just knows that is what he is supposed to say when he doesn't get his way. It is a tricky thing because I can't use the same techniques to get him to stop doing it.
Another funny thing that he does is if he wants to run around in the store and doesn't want me to carry him he starts saying "ow, ow, ow, ow" so everyonat looks at me like I'm hurting him!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Yay....new iPad
If you are on Facebook, than you know how much I've been bitching about having to share a computer with Ross during the day. Well, I finally got my new iPad! I love it yet I'm disappointed that I can't upload pictures. There were two things that I was concerned about and uploading photos was one of them. Every person I asked told me that I could. Not just salespeople either, I asked iPad owners and they all said that you could. Well.... If it was possible, you'd see a pic on this post because I'm sitting on the patio right now with the kids playing in our new $10 blow up pool and I can take their picture, just can't upload it. I can upload to all the social networking sights but those don't make money for me. I was hoping to use this thing for work. So I'm kinda sad about that.
Ok enough bitching.
Yesterday was the spin a thon. Our team had to keep a bike spinning for 6 hours. We raised money for Kids in Distress. We ended up with a pretty big team and so we only had to spin for 27 or 28 minutes. I'm pretty proud of myself too because I raised $350.00 and did 45 minutes of spinning and didn't feel like I was going to die (we loaned some riders to a smaller team). I'm not looking the way I want to look, but health-wise, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in! It feels great.
Ok enough bitching.
Yesterday was the spin a thon. Our team had to keep a bike spinning for 6 hours. We raised money for Kids in Distress. We ended up with a pretty big team and so we only had to spin for 27 or 28 minutes. I'm pretty proud of myself too because I raised $350.00 and did 45 minutes of spinning and didn't feel like I was going to die (we loaned some riders to a smaller team). I'm not looking the way I want to look, but health-wise, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in! It feels great.
Monday, May 09, 2011
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is always a little sad for me. I love being able to have a day to celebrate, but it always makes me super sad that my mom isn't around any more. She was such a giver that she is the exact type of person that holidays like Mother's Day were invented. I hate that I didn't give her the appreciation that she deserved. I took so much for granted and just wish I had some way to turn back the clock just for one day to tell her how much I appreciate everything the did for us. My kids are so awesome and I'm so proud of them, I wish so badly that my mom could have known them.
There were alot of tears this weekend over that.
There were also two more big reminders of our mortality too. My boss, for whom I've worked for about 6 years now lost his sister on Friday to breast cancer. I don't know her exact age, but she is his younger sister and he is 44. She had a family... small kids! I am so sad for them, I know how hard it is not to have a mom and I didn't lose mine until I was an adult. I just can't imagine.
Then, Brandi's most recent ex-boyfriend died Saturday night in a motorcycle accident. I didn't really know him very well, but Brandi is pretty broken up about it.
It is heart breaking, but death is part of living, so although there are tears, it truly makes me more apt to pay attention to today.
So, on that note, I'll move on to tell you about what a fabulous day I had on Mother's Day with Lily. Moms get in free to Butterfly World on Mother's day and I took Lily last year. It is the first thing she talked about when she heard that Mother's day was coming up so I told her we'd certainly go again this year. Eric still naps and Butterfly World is kinda pricey so the boys stayed home and cooked dinner for us.
Lily was so excited for the day that she had been drawing pictures of us & butterflies for about a week. She even set out her butterfly underwear to make sure to wear them on Sunday! She woke me up at 6:55!! Ross is the one who gets up with the kids everyday because he is a morning person, I'm not, and... I do my web-work at night so I don't get a chance to get to bed early like he does. So, on a regular day, I get up at 8. Mother's Day, the day that moms are supposed to SLEEP IN.... Lily woke me up at 6:55. I grumbled that I was supposed to sleep in on Mother's Day and she started to cry telling me that it was a special day and she had something she wanted to give me. Even though I'd been out late at a party the night before, I dragged myself out of bed to receive their gifts. Lily had picked out some gummy fruit snacks for me and a spool of ribbon. She & Eric drew me a picture on a big piece of cardboard. Eric even sat up at the table while I looked at it pointing and saying "draw, draw" (this explains the mysterious green marker arms late last week). It was very sweet. I gave them bagels and snuck back to bed. A few minutes later Lily joined me (she usually has to be woken up for school, so 6:55 is early for her too).
After a little more beauty sleep, we got up and headed out to Butterfly World. Lily likes to sketch things so we stopped at the dollar store and bought two sketch pads, a pack of new crayons, a box of markers and treated ourselves to sodas.
Not long after being there, one of the workers told us that if we put our finger out slowly to a butterfly when it is on a leaf, it may crawl onto our hand. This picture is of how upset Lily got about that silly butterfly not wanting to crawl onto her hand. (Notice the finger still out and ready for the butterfly to climb on)
There was an annoyingly friendly little girl who managed to get one on her finger and she tried to hand it off to Lily
It didn't work, but after a minute of resting in the trees, it climbed onto her hand... just for a second
We bought the butterfly guide book and really took our time looking at each and every butterfly trying to identify them and checking them off in the book.
Then we had horrible pizza & chips for lunch. (*note to self: next year... pack a lunch.*)
Next up were the lorikeets. For a dollar, they give you a cup of juice that the birds are crazy for and they climb all over you. I don't care for birds climbing on me but one really liked me and landed on me twice even though I didn't have any juice. Lily loves them.
And as you can see... they love her too. I worried about her getting pooped on, but thankfully she didn't. Everyone around was taking pictures of her and she thought it was the funniest thing.
After a round of purell and a real soap & water handwash, we got ice cream
The whole day we stopped and sketched out the things we'd seen. Here is Lily drawing the millipede in the Bug Zoo.
And sketching the humming birds
She was really cute with the sketching. She made sure to get all the colors right. She'd see a bird that had a black spot on his eye, or a red feather on the tail or whatever and make sure to put that in her picture. Then she'd tuck her notepad under her arm and move on like some little scientist or something. It was very sweet. I'm holding the memories of this day very close to my heart.
There were alot of tears this weekend over that.
There were also two more big reminders of our mortality too. My boss, for whom I've worked for about 6 years now lost his sister on Friday to breast cancer. I don't know her exact age, but she is his younger sister and he is 44. She had a family... small kids! I am so sad for them, I know how hard it is not to have a mom and I didn't lose mine until I was an adult. I just can't imagine.
Then, Brandi's most recent ex-boyfriend died Saturday night in a motorcycle accident. I didn't really know him very well, but Brandi is pretty broken up about it.
It is heart breaking, but death is part of living, so although there are tears, it truly makes me more apt to pay attention to today.
So, on that note, I'll move on to tell you about what a fabulous day I had on Mother's Day with Lily. Moms get in free to Butterfly World on Mother's day and I took Lily last year. It is the first thing she talked about when she heard that Mother's day was coming up so I told her we'd certainly go again this year. Eric still naps and Butterfly World is kinda pricey so the boys stayed home and cooked dinner for us.
Lily was so excited for the day that she had been drawing pictures of us & butterflies for about a week. She even set out her butterfly underwear to make sure to wear them on Sunday! She woke me up at 6:55!! Ross is the one who gets up with the kids everyday because he is a morning person, I'm not, and... I do my web-work at night so I don't get a chance to get to bed early like he does. So, on a regular day, I get up at 8. Mother's Day, the day that moms are supposed to SLEEP IN.... Lily woke me up at 6:55. I grumbled that I was supposed to sleep in on Mother's Day and she started to cry telling me that it was a special day and she had something she wanted to give me. Even though I'd been out late at a party the night before, I dragged myself out of bed to receive their gifts. Lily had picked out some gummy fruit snacks for me and a spool of ribbon. She & Eric drew me a picture on a big piece of cardboard. Eric even sat up at the table while I looked at it pointing and saying "draw, draw" (this explains the mysterious green marker arms late last week). It was very sweet. I gave them bagels and snuck back to bed. A few minutes later Lily joined me (she usually has to be woken up for school, so 6:55 is early for her too).
After a little more beauty sleep, we got up and headed out to Butterfly World. Lily likes to sketch things so we stopped at the dollar store and bought two sketch pads, a pack of new crayons, a box of markers and treated ourselves to sodas.
Not long after being there, one of the workers told us that if we put our finger out slowly to a butterfly when it is on a leaf, it may crawl onto our hand. This picture is of how upset Lily got about that silly butterfly not wanting to crawl onto her hand. (Notice the finger still out and ready for the butterfly to climb on)
There was an annoyingly friendly little girl who managed to get one on her finger and she tried to hand it off to Lily
It didn't work, but after a minute of resting in the trees, it climbed onto her hand... just for a second
We bought the butterfly guide book and really took our time looking at each and every butterfly trying to identify them and checking them off in the book.Then we had horrible pizza & chips for lunch. (*note to self: next year... pack a lunch.*)
Next up were the lorikeets. For a dollar, they give you a cup of juice that the birds are crazy for and they climb all over you. I don't care for birds climbing on me but one really liked me and landed on me twice even though I didn't have any juice. Lily loves them.
And as you can see... they love her too. I worried about her getting pooped on, but thankfully she didn't. Everyone around was taking pictures of her and she thought it was the funniest thing.After a round of purell and a real soap & water handwash, we got ice cream
The whole day we stopped and sketched out the things we'd seen. Here is Lily drawing the millipede in the Bug Zoo.
And sketching the humming birds
She was really cute with the sketching. She made sure to get all the colors right. She'd see a bird that had a black spot on his eye, or a red feather on the tail or whatever and make sure to put that in her picture. Then she'd tuck her notepad under her arm and move on like some little scientist or something. It was very sweet. I'm holding the memories of this day very close to my heart.
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